General Question

Are there any terms, phrases, or words that you don't like but you use them anyway?

The only one I can really think of is “PC” referring to a computer with Windows on it. I hate that term with a passion. As if a Mac is not a personal computer. Though, of course, a mac IS a personal computer, but it’s not a PC. Dear God. But because it’s easier to say than “Windows computer” or “computer with Windows on it”, I’ll say it.

Sure…you can call yourself whatever you want. But not many people are as extreme as that. Most people have attraction toward both sexes to varying degrees, but are still forced into the binary. I use those terms even though I don’t fully believe in them in the way that I often use them.

I hate the term “moving forward,” as in, “moving forward with this project, we hope to achieve our target blah blah blah” It reeks of some sweaty middle management asshole in a bad tie. But I’ve heard it come out of my mouth occasionally anyway.

I say “Seriously” all the time. My daughter says it too. I was talking to my sister once and I told her, I don’t know where she picked that up! My sister laughed and said, you don’t? You say it all the time…My response was, Seriously? I wish I could break that habit!

I also hate the term “retarded”. My daughter has started using that and it really, really rakes on the nerves. I told her she needs to find a new word to describe things because “retarded” sounds horrible.

I, like, had the ‘like’ habit when I was like, fourteen. My grandmother broke me of it by repeating it every time I said it in a sentence. If only she’d done the same for ‘awesome, dude’! What can I say? I’m a product of the 80s. :)

I say the word “rurnt”. It rhymes with burnt. I think its a southern thing. The milk is rurnt. It means ruined. When I lived in Oregon I told the chef I worked with the milk was rurnt and he probably needed to order some more. He laughed and made me say it again and called me a redneck from Tennessee.

I use too many connectors. And, but, therefore, still, however, so, yet, also, because.
If I leave them out, the meaning is usually just as clear. I think they’re pushy – “here, let me explain how you should connect these two thoughts”.

I use “like,” “anyway,” and “seriously” WAY too much. And I’m with @susanc on the connectors, too.

Also, there are a lot of words that I hate, would never use to describe other people, and take offense to when others use to describe me, but I use them when talking about myself all the time—“fag,” and “retarded” come to mind first. Though, to be fair, technically I call myself “fagalicious” and it’s not meant to be insulting, just… descriptive.

I’m not religious at all, yet these words are ingrained into my vocabulary, as explicatives. My highly religious aunt claims that it’s proof I still believe in god, but they really aren’t. It’s like a bad habit that I need to fix.

I hate describing something as “gay”. I can’t help it, if I don’t use it sometimes people in my age bracket just won’t fully comprehend until I say “it was so gay” or something. It’s ridiculous, but a habit.

I’ve tried to replace “I don’t care” with “it doesn’t matter” or “it makes no difference”... because not caring sounds wrong. This occurred to me about 10 years ago when I asked my son’s friend what time his mother wanted him home… “She doesn’t care” was his telling reply (sadly, he was one of several kids, and had little to no supervision). I immediately turned to my son and told him to never use that phrase.

@Augustlan: Like, I’m an 80s product, too. Ya know? I mean, ohmigawd!
Before ‘like’ started, my friends father would tease us, saying: “You know what I mean; I mean… ya know… you know what I mean, right?” I think he had, like, given up on us completely by the time we started, like, saying ‘like’ like every other word, ya know?

And I would like to find something to replace “Oh My God” as an expression of surprise or disbelief, but in those moments it is almost reflexive.

ugh…i HATE when i say
“REALLY?”
when someone just got done telling me something.
it’s like, why would they say if it’s not true?
but then again, ppl do say weird things just to be stupid or funny.
i’m really gullible so i guess that’s why i always have to ask to make sure it happened..

I totally overuse “totally,” too. And “completely,” and “utterly.” Also, “really,” “truly,” “actually,” and “honestly.” Probably some others along the same lines, too, because when I skim over what I’ve written before sending it, I try to make sure I don’t use the same words all the time. Instead of taking them out (which is probably what I should do most of the time) I stick something else in instead.

…and, @MacBean and others, probably little of what you write really, truly, and totally needs intensifiers.

We have such a habit of magnifying everything, using extreme adjectives in the first place (magnificent, awesome, fabulous, etc.) and then exaggerating with intensifiers, that superlatives of every kind go flat. It’s worth a little extra effort to become aware of doing this and to practice stating without overstating. Why? Not just to make it easier on the ears of others but also because people are accustomed to filtering them out in order to hear what you are actually* saying. So they become self-canceling.

If you want to make an impression, use words that are not empty.

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*Used here for contrast—one of the options that come back to you when you shed the meaningless ones.